What is the Best Bard Fighting Style in Core+some Completes

[Xenken]

I'm about to be a Bard, starting at first level. I'll definitely have some funny UMD but I want to spend a significant amount of time hitting things.
I have Core and the Completes except Scoundrel, Champion, and Mage.

What should the weapon part of my build look like?

[Soranar]

With d6 hitpoints you're better off staying away from melee but, if you insist, you can use a longsword with 2 hands and deal a decent amount of damage with the typical power attack, leap attack, shock trooper (improved bullrush is also a requirement).

Ideally you'd want loresong to give you a pseudo smite bonus to hit but that's from dungeonscape.

Otherwise you make a fair archer with knowledge devotion but, again, that's from a book you don't have access to (though everything is online if you search a little).

[Cygnia]

What else is your group comprised of?

Is the GM just not allowing those Completes or is it you just don't have them?

[Xenken]

What else is your group comprised of?

Is the GM just not allowing those Completes or is it you just don't have them?

I'm in a westmarches, so the group changes a lot.
and yep, those Completes are just banned.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Generally the best way to go for a melee bard is Snowflake Wardance from Frostburn‚ but without it‚ you should do okay with a few levels of War Chanter (CWar)

[Troacctid]

The best fighting style for a bard in Core + Completes is spellcasting. Buff spells on allies, disruption spells on enemies, and go into sublime chord once you qualify.

If you're using weapons, you still want to incorporate your spellcasting. Just don't fall into the Weapon Finesse trap. Rogues can get away with it because they have sneak attack, but otherwise, if you don't have any stat providing actual damage, then there's no point. Either put points in Strength or don't bother with weapons as your main strategy.

Of course whirling blade can still work just fine, since it keys off Charisma. A whirling longsword wielded in two hands adds 1.5x your Cha to damage and can hit multiple targets at your full attack bonus. You can also bladeweave or war cry them, or use wraithstrike or true strike to fuel Power Attack hits (with the latter being best alongside Craft Contingent Spell).

[Thurbane]

I don't know if it would be at all viable in an actual game, but in the ToEE CRPG I almost always fitted out my Bards as archers, so they could activate their music, hang back, and shoot at the enemy...

[H_H_F_F]

I'm about to be a Bard, starting at first level. I'll definitely have some funny UMD but I want to spend a significant amount of time hitting things.
I have Core and the Completes except Scoundrel, Champion, and Mage.

What should the weapon part of my build look like?

Do you have access to psionics, and complete psionics? Getting psionics lion charge would be excellent without access to complete champion.

Anyway, if you'd like to be hitting things, it's still hard to bet against just THF power attacking - especially with acces to leap attack from Cadv and tactical feats from CW.

When it comes to being powerful, you're going to have a hard time betting against casting, especially with sublime chord. But if you like melee (I like it too!) You might want to look at spellsword and eldritch knight. You could reasonably expect to lose no more than 3 BaB over the full build, and still get 9ths through sublime chord.

That's very much "20th level thinking", though. What level do you expect the campaign to go to? How late would you be willing to wait for the build to fully come online?

Where are you from, by the way?